The Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Engineer Shaukatullah has directed for establishment of an endowment fund in FATA to promote education, sponsor talented students and meet deficiencies in educational institutions.
The Governor in a formal directive to FATA Secretariat here Monday has further elaborated that the fund would be envisaged to extend sponsorship to FATA students including those studying in Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute Topi, LUMS and Aitcheson Lahore, NUST Islamabad, irrespective of the classes in which they would be studying.
“We also need to sponsor talented students desirous to appear in Inter Service Selection Board, Entry tests of professional institutions and other competitive exams’ the Governor while stressing the immediate need of establishing the fund said.
He has also desired to allocate Rs.200 million in the form of Annual Development Program scheme as seed money for the fund which would be further enhanced through the courtesy of Federal Government, donor agencies etc. Possibility should also be explored to get reasonable share from the Annual Development Funds being operated through political agents, he remarked.
Referring to the prevailing state of circumstances in the respect, the Governor said that the fact that 59% children of the age group of 4-10 years are left out of enrolment system of government schools, is a big challenge and to cope with the situation, we need to avail every available option.
While mentioning the findings of the survey carried out by National Commission for Human Development in FATA, the Governor has pointed out that education in the area is indeed beset with an array of problems ranging from out of school children, deficiencies in schools and colleges, teachers’ absenteeism, lack of quality education both within FATA and outside etc and there is a need to take meaningful and substantial intervention. Establishment of an endowment fund could prove an immediate as well as long term supplement to the ground realities, the Governor said.
Source: The Frontier Post
